CHENNAI: DMDK chief Vijayakanth on Friday announced that his party will not contest the ensuing byelections to RK Nagar constituency as he feels Tamil Nadu will face general elections much before the poll schedule for the constituency is announced. Vijayakanth, whose DMDK drew a blank in the 2016 Assembly elections with he himself losing from Ulundurpet constituency in Villupuram district, said he had no confidence in the Tamil Nadu government and accused it of “failing miserably” in controlling dengue.
“There is no point in contesting RK Nagar byelections. But I feel Tamil Nadu will face general elections much before that. This government will not last long,” Vijayakanth told reporters after meeting Dengue victims at Stanley Government Medical College and Hospital here. Vijayakanth said he had no confidence that free and fair polls would be held and predicted fall of the AIADMK government by the end of 2017. His comments came as Chief Election Commissioner A. K. Jyoti on Thursday said byelections to RK Nagar will be conducted by the end of the year as per court directive.
Jyoti's statement put at rest speculation on when elections would be held in R K Nagar, which fell vacant after the death of chief minister J. Jayalalithaa. The EC had invoked a special clause in the law to postpone by-elections to the constituency by citing the “extraordinary situation” in the state. The elections, if held by December, will be the first acid test for the EPS-OPS government after the much-talked about merger in August and will come at a time the faction led by TTV Dhinakaran is fighting hard to rock the government's boat. Already, Speaker P. Dhanapal has disqualified 18 MLAs supporting Dhinakaran and the case is pending before the Madras high court.
Cancellation of bypolls to RK Nagar also came two days after I-T department allegedly recovered documents that said Rs 89 crore was to be distributed among voters in the constituency by members of the ruling AIADMK. The document allegedly had the names of top brass of the government.
